


What friends are for.

by CommanderInChief



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 08:21:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5736520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommanderInChief/pseuds/CommanderInChief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Kate looks out for Osgood. Because what else are *friends* for?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RightHandWoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RightHandWoman/gifts).



The attack was over in seconds; the blue reptiles finding that perhaps the North Pole wasn’t the _best place_ for a cold-blooded species to set up a trench line. Honestly, Kate was far more concerned about the paper-work that they’d left to be filled in behind them. Signing off a full-scale defence plan was one thing but a fifty page report for a few dozen lizards dipping their toes in the water was utterly _ridiculous_.

With a sigh, she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at her desk. It was going to be a long night.

Four hours later, when the lights had dimmed and the soldiers gone home, there was a timid knock on the frosted glass that opened into a door.

“I put a do-not-disturb sign on the door – can’t you read?” she snapped, really not in the mood for whatever shenanigans the night patrol had managed to get themselves into.  Unless it was another invasion (and a _proper one_ this time) she simply wasn’t interested. 

“Sorry…” The voice that replied was softer then she’d expected … _feminine_. Not at all like the brashness of a soldier more accustomed to shouting orders then (God forbid) _talking_ to someone. Her suspicions were proved correct when Osgood, precariously balancing a tea tray in one arm and a laptop in the other, manoeuvred through the heavy door, just about managing to keep it open with the heel of her foot.  “I heard that you’re having an all-nighter too so I umm… I brought tea. You know what they say, misery loves company. I know how creepy these places can get when you’re on your own at night.”

Kate, who was really more bothered about being stuck in an office then the timings of her work shift, just nodded.  “Well, if anything can get through six inches of titanium plated reinforced steel unnoticed then I’d very much like to offer them a job,” Despite Kate’s sense of humour being tired, even by her own, equally drained judgement, Osgood laughed nervously.

Still grinning down at the platter of precisely spaced tea-cups and sugar pots, she didn’t pay attention to where she was walking – or rather _what_ she was walking on. Tripping over the preposterously long scarf, the woman, along with a pot of hot tea, dropped to the concrete floor. She was vaguely aware of the high-pitched shatter of porcelain before landing in the fray of scolding hot water and sharp fragments of pottery.

Without hesitation, blonde rushed from her desk, kneeling by the side of her colleague.

“Osgood – are you alright?” she asked urgently. It didn’t take advanced med training to know that a head-on collision with a solid floor was bad news. “Osgood, talk to me. **Are You Alright**?” she spoke slowly and deliberately, but could’ve been talking in French for all the response it earned.  “I always said that bloody scarf would be the death of you,” she muttered, ripping the comms device from the strap at her hip.

“Beaker 1-9, this is Dr. Stewart speaking do you copy?”

“Affirmative. Copy that. State your whereabouts and situation,”

“AT674, I repeat, Alpha-Tango-six-seven-four. I have a fellow scientist unconscious following head-on collision. Unresponsive, concussion to be assumed, I want a medic down here immediately,”

“Ma’am, this line is strictly for extra-terrestrial hostile-” Complained the antagonized male voice on the other side of the line before being cut off by the full wrath of a Lethbridge-Stewart.

“ _May I remind you that I am your superior officer and I have an unresponsive collegue - you **will** get me a medic this instant. Do you copy?_ ”

“They’re on their way, ma’am, over and out.”

The line dropped dead and Kate was left to contemplate if it would be childish to call the doctor down for the sole purpose of slapping him into the next regeneration for that down-right- _dangerous_ scarf of his. 

_Probably…._

_What was his number again?_


	2. Chapter 2

\- “Hi Kate, it’s Osgood.

I was just wondering if, you know , well…umm,” she put the phone down, pressing the hash key for the fifth time that morning. She always had been useless over the phone.

What did she think she was doing anyway? Kate was her _boss_.

Her  _straight_ boss.

She couldn’t have gone for anyone more out-of-bounds if she’d had been in a cheesy romantic comedy.

 _Still_ , her straight-out-of-bounds-boss _had_ gone out of her way to make sure that she was looked after when she had her accident. The _least_ she could do was try to thank her.

Osgood redialled the number and brought the phone to her ear.

‘You have reached Dr. Kate Stewart, I am currently unavailable. If it is a matter of national importance then please contact the task-force directly. Personal communications may be left in a message after the beep.

…

“Hi Kate, It's Osgood..."

\--- 

Three missed calls. _Not bad for a two hour meeting_.

The first was the American general who’d seemed far more interested in getting into her trousers than the new defence scheme that she’d gone to the seminar to propose. His message was short, sleazy and, from what she could decipher from the mess of gun-themed-innuendos, offering her a ‘ _weekend reckie’_ for an _‘in-depth cross-examination of military personnel from across the Pond_ ’.

 _No surprises there_.

Then, the phone clicked and played Osgood’s voice, deep and raspy where she’d forgotten to use her inhaler.

‘I was just wondering if you wanted to come over later. I’ve got those test results you wanted, on the blue lizard scales?’ They cleared their throat and Kate swallowed thickly, realising just how dry her mouth had become. ‘Besides, I still owe you a cup of tea. So, _yeah_ , I’m in any time after six –  call me back if you can’t make it’

 In better spirits than she’d thought possible for a woman with a possible alien invasion on her hands, UNIT’s chief scientist hung up the phone. Queen and country be damned – she was having the night off.

(Sort of)

\---

Osgood took one last look in the mirror, untucking that one piece of hair from behind her ear before immediately putting it back again. In front of her ear? Behind the ear? In Front? Behind? She knew which was more _practical_ but the bruise on her forehead, now shining like a ripe plum, wasn’t getting any less obvious no matter _how much_ make-up she used. Fashion or practicality? In front of –

The doorbell rang

 _Decision time_.

Behind.

 ** _No_**.

In front.

Abandoning her mirror, she rushed to open the door to Kate.

There was something strangely intimate about seeing her boss in casual clothing – tight blue jeans paired with a modest cream jumper that flattered her figure just as well as the trouser-suits that she carried off like battle armour. To see her looking so _domestic_ felt like prying. “Kate, you look-”

The blonde raised her slightly messy eyebrows.

“Your jumper… It looks… _Nice_. I think I’ve got one at home, well this is home, what am I saying?”

A bemused looking Kate cut her off before she could dig a deeper hole for herself “Hmm… Gordy bought it me, said it’d come in handy if I ever took a weekend off. Always one for wishful thinking. Anyway, speaking of work, I suppose you have something to show me?”

“Yes, they’re just in my office – should’ve finished printing off by now. Come in, I’ll put the kettle on…”

\---

  The evening ran smoothly, both parties remembering just what it felt like to talk freely, without the filters or secrecy acts that’d set them both a second out of time with the rest of the world. Then, as tea cups were abandoned for tall glasses of cherry-red wine, the conversation became more akin to that of two teenagers at a sleepover. It was personal and brutally honest, yet somehow, everything was hilarious. 

 “Oh, and did I tell you about the message he left me this morning? _Honestly_ , I don’t think that man could get any further away from my bed if he disappeared to metabolise three. At least _your_ secret admirer has a _little_ more subtlety – what was it he said the other day? He needed help operating the Petri dish washer?” Even Kate wasn’t too busy to observe the current _‘office romance_ ’ that her colleagues seemed to believe in so shamelessly.  

“Yeah, well, I wish he wouldn’t...”

“You know, we should really just tell them both we bat for the other team, they’d soon bugger off,”

“Pull a girl-code 101?” asked the brunette, with a little more enthusiasm than was _quite necessary_. 

“Pardon?”

“Oh, it’s just one of the things we used to say at boarding school. Pretend to be dating each other to get the boys campus to look elsewhere.”

“Well we could certainly try it, _Sweeth’art_ ,” The bad southern American accent paired with a deliberate wink caused Osgood to collapse into a fit of giggles. It wasn’t every day that she got to see people making fun of her superiors.

 “Only if you promise to _never_ say that again.”


End file.
